One word or image from someone in the public eye can be a tragedy or a huge boost for the conservation of a species. Our awards for Action and Awareness go to two special celebrities (and remember that our awards are a special loris manga drawn in their honour – how sweet is that?!).

Award for Conservation Action: Kristen Bell

Hollywood actress Kristen Bell put slow lorises in the spotlight last year. Just google the name of this animal-loving vegan actress, and in her interviews, she consistently advocates the cause of lesser known and unusual animals – particularly sloths and slow lorises. We can’t agree more on the animal cuteness scale when Kristen says…”There’s nothing cuter than a baby sloth. It doesn’t exist in my opinion. OK, maybe a slow Loris. Maybe. On a good day. And if it’s a baby slow loris!”

Award for Conservation Awareness: Warwick Davis

Again our award goes to someone who INSPIRED Prof Nekaris on her path to loris obsession! If it were not for Warwick Davis, Anna might not have spent the last 20 years combing every corner of Asia tracking down and learning about lorises. Rumour has it that ewoks in Return of the Jedi were modelled after lorises. Anna knows every word of the ‘Ewok Celebration’ song to this day! We know that Warwick Davis has gone on to greater things, but his manga shows just how much an ewok can cast the image of loris into the public eye.